Brussels, 25/01/2013 (Agence Europe) - The European Small Business Association (ESBA) expressed concern at the European Parliament's internal market and consumer protection committee on Wednesday about the new EU data protection rules and urged the civil liberties committee, the Parliament's lead committee on this issue, to not follow the Commission's recommendation. The opinion report by Lara Comy (EPP, Italy) scrapped the Commission's January 2012 idea of exempting all small companies and mid-caps with fewer than 250 staff members from the requirement to recruit a data protection officer. ESBA points out, too, that the internal market committee also refused to go along with the idea of several small businesses clubbing together to recruit a data protection officer between them. These two changes, if endorsed by the civil liberties committee, would penalise small businesses both financially and administratively, argues ESBA. It is calling for an exemption for companies for which data usage is not their core activity. The civil liberties committee would appear to be moving in that direction, rapporteur, Jan-Philip Albrecht (Greens/EFA, Germany), not favouring exemptions based on a company's business rather than size. (SP/transl.fl)